Entertainment

Matt Gutman, a longtime ABC News correspondent based in Los Angeles, is leaving the network for a high profile role at CBS News. Gutman will be the first significant on-air hire by Bari Weiss, who was named editor in chief of CBS News in October, according to people briefed on the matter who were not…

“Are you ready? Then we shall begin.” This narration, over an image of three moons hanging in the sky, begins Julia Jackman’s “100 Nights of Hero,” which she adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 graphic novel and directed. It signifies that we’re in for a level of heightened, self-reflective fantasy storytelling and, in fact, the revolutionary…

Coming to you from the opposite end of the movie musical spectrum from where “Wicked” perches is Maria Friedman’s compact, propulsive film of her acclaimed revival staging of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” The revered composer’s 1981 musical is that canon rarity: a flop (as in, it closed two weeks after opening) that over…

Hollywood unions and trade groups are pushing back against the proposed $82.7 billion deal for streaming giant Netflix to acquire Warner Bros.’ film and television studios, HBO and HBO Max, citing concerns about greater industry consolidation, job losses and the potential hit to theatrical box office revenue. Groups began voicing opposition even before the proposed…

Netflix has prevailed in its bid to buy Warner Bros., agreeing to pay $72 billion for the Burbank-based Warner Bros. film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO. The two companies announced the blockbuster deal early Friday morning. The takeover would give Netflix such beloved characters as Batman, Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone. “Our mission…

Less than a month after announcing its opening date, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art told staff that chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas is leaving the museum this week. “There are no immediate plans to replace Pilar’s role as Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Curatorial and Collections,” wrote interim Chief Executive Jim Gianopulos in…

A man mourns the loss of his dead celebrity mom, who unexpectedly appears before him as a hologram in his childhood home, singing and strumming a guitar. The touching scene is from a new short film called “Sweetwater” that has an unlikely backer: Google. Amid all the hand-wringing over artificial intelligence and the potential threat…

Ah, the western. That great American canvas, upon which many sorts of motion pictures have been projected, stretching back to the very beginning of the medium: adventure, romance, comedic, serious, simplistic, artistic, racist, revisionist, historical, metaphorical, low-budget, big-budget, dark, light, set in a wild landscape or on the edge of it, where the deer and…

Phil Upchurch, a prolific session musician who played guitar on records by artists such as Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and George Benson, died Nov. 23 in Los Angeles. He was 84. His death was confirmed by his wife, Sonya Maddox-Upchurch, who didn’t specify a cause or say where in L.A. he died. Among…

The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction.